


Lophii's Blooms

by RunWithWolves



Series: 25 Days of Sweetheart [1]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Florist AU, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 10:35:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12386430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunWithWolves/pseuds/RunWithWolves
Summary: Carmilla just wanted to sneak in and out of the flower shop without any one noticing that the big bad vampire wanted a plant. The plan was going fine until she ran straight into Laura Hollis, the roommate she hasn't seen since they graduated school four years before. The crush who got away.And while it makes perfect sense for a vampire to be hanging out in the magical world, there's no reason for her supposedly human ex-roommate to be running a magical flower shop where the flowers change colour and the vines grab onto customer wrists and refuse to let go.





	Lophii's Blooms

**Author's Note:**

> One last time to celebrate the movie, I'm writing a Carmilla story for every single weekday for the next 5 weeks which will get us to a grand total of me having written 100 Carmilla stories.
> 
> This one is a florist au because it's a grievous oversight that I've somehow never written one. And then, because I'm me, I added magic to it :)

Carmilla moved quickly as she entered the flower shop, hunching low to avoid anyone seeing her. People bought houseplants all the time and her siblings could mind their own business as to why she wanted one. 

“Getting lonely, sis?” She growled her brother’s words under her breath.

The nerve. Irritating little weasel. 

Not that her sister had been any better, “This doesn’t have anything to do with that moppet you were pretending not to be in love with and her strange obsession with that potted dandelion, is it? Honestly Carmilla, you should have asked the girl out years ago instead of that dance you both did where you pretended to hate each other.”

Carmilla hadn’t seen her old university roommate in four years. Laura was nothing more than a pleasant memory. This trip to a magical flower shop had nothing to do with her. She just wanted a little life in her apartment. 

Heaven knew that Carmilla herself wasn’t alive. Something might as well enjoy the sunlight.

As Carmilla turned a tight corner between rows of flowering plants that were flickering between shades of blue and purple, she slammed into a warm body coming the other way. Vampiric reflexes kicking in, she grabbed the person as they fell.

“Whoa there,” she started to shove them off, “Watch where you’re-”

“Carmilla!?!”

The words died in Carmilla’s throat as she found a familiar pair of brown eyes staring wide-eyed at her as the unmistakable smell of sugar drifted past. Where they’d once been pushing away, her fingers tightened on reflex as she took in the sight of Laura Hollis like a reborn ghost of her past. 

Except this Laura Hollis was wearing a work uniform with ‘Lophii’s Blooms’ emblazoned on the shirt. There was a small potted plant stuffed into a side holster on her hip and she had a smudge of dirt on cheekbone. The smudge was enough to have something that felt like the memory of an affectionate feeling tapping on her chest. For all that Laura had yelled at Carmilla about keeping their shared bathroom clean, she’d been notoriously bad at keeping chocolate off her face. 

“What are you doing here?” Laura asked, her nose scrunching, “Wait how are you even here? Muggles can’t even get into this part of the city so there’s no way that you could- unless. Are you. Are you magical?”

The questions were familiar but the small droop in Laura’s smile at her final question was brand new. 

Carmilla blinked. Laura remained.

Her words came quieter, “You are magic, aren’t you? That explains the whole blood in the milk container thing. Probably needed it for a spell or something.”

There was something in Laura’s words that Carmilla couldn’t quite identify, a drop of the shoulders and the flicker of a spark. Both propeller her to speak, “Not exactly, cupcake. I’m no wizard.”

“Oh.” The smile flicked back across Laura’s face at the nickname and when she shook her head, Carmilla would almost have called it fond. “Still with the nicknames.”

“If the shoe fits...” Carmilla said. 

Laura rolled her eyes, “Well, good to know you’re still exactly as annoying as you always were.”

“Well,” Carmilla said, “I’d hate to break my streak of being disappointing.”

The words seemed to fall out before Laura could stop them, “You were never disappointing. That was all on me.”

There was nothing Carmilla could say to that. The only movement the soft push of Laura’s breath across Carmilla’s lips as she realized just how tightly she was still holding Laura. 

Slowly Carmilla let go, stepped back, and gave Laura a more detailed once-over, “What about you, cupcake? Are you about to tell them that you’ve been a wizard this whole time? Because otherwise this takes the Harry Potter fanaticism to a whole new level.”

The blue flowers blooming next to her head turned a dull gray.

“Not exactly,” Laura echoed her words then brushed past her, heading towards the front desk. “Can I help you out with something today? Get you a bouquet? We’ve got a sale on succulents. That seems a little more your speed.” She slipped behind the desk, the heavy wooden structure almost solidifying her, and set the small pot on the desk. Her fingers soft on what Carmilla realized was a single tendril poking from the soil. 

She frowned, a memory of a very similar pot with a very similar single tendril on Laura’s headboard at Silas. As though the plant hadn’t grown at all.

Well she couldn’t buy a house plant now. Not with Laura looking at her like that. 

“Just some crushed Dracnia roots,” Carmilla said, “Fresh, if you have them.”

Laura nodded and disappeared into the back, leaving Carmilla with the plants. The store itself was bright, a miniature sun hovering in the center of the store as the ceiling either was the literal sky or a near perfect imitation. You could never quite tell with magic. There were plants on every available surface; some stacked high on shelves to the ceiling while other were swinging gently in hanging baskets. There colours fluctuated but each one looked strangely matte; their colours muted to something closer to the gray that had appeared over Laura’s head only minutes before. There was a rippling noise and Carmilla suspected that there was an actual stream somewhere nearby. 

She was distracted by something touching her hand. A creeping tendril, wiggling over from some hanging vines beside the checkout desk, was tapping her finger. She moved her hand an inch away. 

Bumping into Laura’s pot. 

Carmilla paused, looked up at the door Laura had disappeared behind, then reached out and cautiously touched the tiny green sprout. It quivered under her touch, literally trembling. She ran her finger up the side of the shoot, barely longer than her pinky finger and significantly thinner. Soft to the touch. Just when she was about to pull her hand away, the trembling calmed and the shoot tilted.

Bending around her finger like it was embracing it. 

The back door opened and Carmilla gently pulled away before Laura could see, “We’ve got a half pound,” Laura said, “Hope that’s enough. We should have more in Tuesday.”

Carmilla nodded, “That’s fine.”

Something tickled her hand again and she found the creeping vine grabbing at her again. She snatched her hand away, “Your plant is groping the customers.”

The flowers blooming on the shelf behind Laura turned a vibrant yellow on the edges. 

“She just wants to hold your hand,” Laura said, “Strictly a gentlelady on the first encounter. It’s the fifth time when she really starts to get handsy.”

“Where’s the fun in it if you can’t do a little groping on the first date?” Carmilla threw out, eyeing the vine as it followed her.

Laura shook her head, “Sounds like you two are perfect for each other then.”

Carmilla watched helplessly as the vine curled around her wrist, “I prefer my ladies a little more human if you don’t mind.”

“Well, she’s a cheap sell if you ever change your mind,” Laura said, “I’ll even give you a discount. Friends and family benefit.”

Camilla raised her eyebrow, “I’m flattered that I make the friends category, cupcake.”

Laura shrugged, “‘Irritating and brooding ex-roommate who thought it was hilarious to be intentionally antagonistic but was still weirdly charming sometimes’ discount is a mouthful.”

“I prefer ‘Hot and mysterious ex-roommate who thought your bunched-up angry face was absolutely adorable and went about staring at it in the wrong way’ discount.”

Laura’s head flew up. Eyes wide before they narrowed into a frown as she simply watched Carmilla. 

Carmilla shrugged, “You were self righteous and tightly wound. It was too easy and I was an ass.”

“I’d swear there was a compliment mixed up in there.” Laura was still frowning at her, “Someone’s definitely put you under a spell”

“Call them as I see them.” Carmilla shrugged, “You’re always adorable but sometimes you’d get this angry look and it would be totally eclipsed by something very sexy.”

She should probably have gotten some kind of prize for the way Laura gaped at her. The flowers flashing as pink as the blush that filled Laura’s cheeks. 

There was a squeeze on her wrist and she winced, “Um, Laura.” The vine was totally wrapped around her wrist and holding on like it never wanted to let her go.

“Sorry!” Laura’s tone went firm and it flipped something in Carmilla’s stomach, “Alright. You need to let go now.” The plant loosened slightly, “She’s not yours. Let Carmilla leave. It was nice to see her again but she’s got things to do and you can’t keep her.” 

Carmilla frowned.

Slowly, the plant let go as Laura shooed it back to it’s place and arranged the vine so it was reaching towards the sun instead. When she returned to the counter, she put her hands back on her pot and the small sprout. Almost protectively. “Anything else I can do for you?” Her laugh seemed forced, “Otherwise you better go before it starts getting any ideas.”

The flowers around her had turned blue again.

“I’m good. Thanks, cupcake.” Carmilla grabbed her bag of unnecessary roots.

“Yeah. Yeah. Of course,” Laura smiled, “It was good to see you again. Good luck with your potion or whatever and if you need anything else. I’ll, you know, be here. So good luck and cool beans and all that.”

Cool beans and all that. 

Carmilla turned to look at her, fighting a smile as she was halfway out the door.”Don’t hurt yourself Laura.” The smudge of dirt was still on Laura’s face. Carmilla tapped her own cheek, “You’ve got a little something right here.”

Laura scrubbed at her face, looked at her hand, and the flowers behind her turned even more pink as the blush grew.

The image stayed with Carmilla as she walked down the street of Diagon Ally, a line of green braceletted around her wrist.

#

It was still there a week later when Carmilla returned to the flower shop. The unfading line was definitely the only reason she was returning. This time, she entered quietly. The air was warm with mist and quiet with the sound of rustling leaves from moving plants and the rippling of the still-unfound creek. 

She prowled the aisles until she spotted Laura hunched over some magical pansies and feeding them what appeared to be an enormous vat of honey. She crept up right behind Laura, “I’ve got a problem, cupcake.”

Laura jumping sky-high was totally worth the return visit. All the flowers turned white.

“Carmilla!” She turned around and thwacked her with the honey spoon, “Don’t do that.”

“Assaulting customers, eh?” Carmilla said, “That can’t be allowed in the employee handbook.”

Laura pointed the spoon at her, “Seeing as I wrote it, I think I can bend the rules a little for intentionally antagonistic customers.”

“That’s broody and mysterious customer.” Carmilla reminded her.

Laura snorted, “You wish.” Still there was surprise in her eyes and fondness tinging the edges of her lips as colour crept back into the plants. “So,” Laura wiped her hands on her apron, “what can I do for you today? More root?”

When Laura brushed her hair back from her face, she got dirt on her ear.

Carmilla held back her smile and her twitching fingers. Instead, she shoved her hand in Laura’s face, “Your plant marked me.”

Laura went cross eyed staring at her arm. Then she grabbed Carmilla by the wrist and practically dragged her across the shop, “Look what you did!”

Carmilla was fairly sure that Laura wasn’t talking to her.

She shoved Carmilla’s arm at the plant, “You know better than this! Apologize!”

The plant perked up immediately, tilting towards Carmilla and reaching for her. She hastily stepped back, “It doesn’t seem very apologetic.”

“Sorry,” Laura shot the plant a glare, “It’s usually better behaved than this.”

Of course she’d attracted the trouble-making plant. Carmilla rubbed at her wrist, “Well, they can’t all be like your plant I guess.”

“My plant?”

She gestured to Laura’s hip, “That’s the same one you had in university right? Or is it a new shoot? I remember it being about the same size back then.”

“You remember-” Laura shook her head and restarted, her hand covering the tiny shoot, “Yeah, it’s the same one. Got it when I was eleven.”

“And here I thought most wizard kids got wands,” Carmilla said, “Didn’t realize they were handing out plants too.”

She knew she’d made a mistake when all the flowers went dim, like their colour had turned down, “I wasn’t exactly like everyone else.”

Laura’s hand twitched, like it didn’t know whether it wanted to cover the shoot or retract from it entirely. The previously warm air suddenly felt too heavy and Carmilla got the distinct impression that the creeping vine was disappointed with her. 

The sad look on Laura’s face was worst of all.

“Well,” she reached out, carefully pulling the rag from Laura’s apron and dusting the dirt off her ear without touching her, “I already knew that, cupcake. Who could hold a candle to you?”  
Laura snorted, “I’m pretty sure every single wizard would disagree with you.”

“Good thing I’m not a wizard,” Carmilla said.

“Carmilla, I caught you turning into panther that one time,” Laura said, “I know you said that I must have accidentally eaten ‘special brownies’ but that’s definitely animagus material!”

Carmilla sighed and let her fangs drop, “I’m not a wizard. No magic here. Just your run of the mill vampire.”

Every single bloomed turned to look in her direction at once and Carmilla had the sudden sinking feeling that she had made a horrible mistake. There was a reason she spent very little time in the magical world. Vampires were about as welcome here as werewolves were. 

“Oh.”

The word was short but full. Slowly, Laura reached out and hovered over her wrist.

“I’m not going to bite you, cupcake,” Carmilla tried but even she could feel the vulnerability leaking over her words, “Unless you ask of course.”

Laura grabbed her, voice firm. Almost too firm. “I know that. If you were going to drain me dry you had plenty of opportunities during school. Which, why were you there then if you’re a vampire you must be like, so old. Wait. How old are you? Like are you thousands of years old? Because if so it was definitely really mean of you to not help me study for that history final and-”

“I’m just past 300,” Carmilla interrupted what was quickly becoming a patented Laura Hollis rant, “And just because I’ve got a few centuries on me, it doesn’t mean I don’t like learning new things.”

“You hated school! You never went to class.”

Carmilla shrugged as Laura let go of her to dig in a shelf by the door to the backroom, “Once you hit 150 you can pretty much do what you want. Sometimes that means sleeping all day. There’s always tomorrow to catch up.”

“Even you can die,” Laura reminded her, “What happened to seize the day and carpe diem and all that.” 

“Already died,” Carmilla shrugged, “Didn’t seem too bad. Why worry about it happening again?”

Laura stopped to look at her, “You’re such a philosophy major.”

“There are worse things to be,” Carmilla said. She couldn’t help but look down at her toes, hand rubbing the back of her neck. Laura was reacting well but the magical world had rules about vampires. 

A warm hand wrapped around her wrist, “Vampires aren’t one of them, Carm.” When she looked up, warm eyes were looking back at her. She watched as Laura carefully scooped some kind of cream from a jar and carefully started applying it to her wrist, covering the green line.

“Not going to write an investigative report on me?” Carmilla tried for a joke, “Use that journalism degree to report the vampire scourge in Diagon Alley.”

There was a pause, Laura’s fingers stuttering on her wrist but never removing contact. Eventually, she slowly smoothed the cream again and Carmilla had to wonder if it was the cream or the girl making her skin prickle. “I’d never write it but they wouldn’t take the story any way. I tried to get an internship at the Prophet at graduation and they made it very clear that I wasn’t welcome there.”

Carmilla frowned at the waver in Laura’s voice, “Then they’re idiots. Hogwarts doesn’t even offer a journalism program and this is just that biased nonsense towards people who went to that prick upperclass magic school.”

The sun in the shop was dimmed. The flowers drooping.

Laura shook her head, eyes closed. Her fingers tight on Carmilla’s wrist, “Don’t say that. All I ever wanted was to go to Hogwarts, Carm. Snuck in when I was 13 and everything.”

Carmilla covered Laura’s hand with her own, “Laura.”

“I’m a squib.” The words were a whisper and a shaky mess, “Both my parents have magic but there’s not a drop of magic in me. Silas is where squibs go to University because it’s Silas. Even if it’s not magic, it’s at least supernatural. Journalism was a job that everyone needs, magic or not, and I thought that maybe after I graduate then I could find a place here.” Her laugh was shaky, “I was wrong. The best I could do was taking over my Mom’s flower shop; Dad could never let it go after she died and we’ve just had strangers running it. So I took it.” There was a steely look behind the tears, “Not going to let them just run me out of town.”

Carmilla couldn’t handle it. She reached up, using her thumb to whisk away the tears that were about to fall on Laura’s cheeks, “I stand by the fact that they’re all idiots.”

Laura’s smile was small, “You might be right.”

“Pshaw,” Carmilla scoffed, “Of course I am.” 

That did it. The tears turned into a laugh as Laura put a hand to her mouth to hide the emotion falling out of her while her eyes took Carmilla in like she was the most ridiculous thing Laura had ever seen. The sun brightened. The flowers perked back up with every teary giggle.

“A vampire and a squib,” Laura said, “We were quite the pair of roommates weren’t we?”

“An absolute disaster keeping us in the same space,” Carmilla confirmed. 

Laura shook off her laugher and tears to tap Carmilla’s wrist, “Well the world is going to have to put up with the disaster a little bit longer. You’ll need to come in every other day for the next few weeks for a fresh cream application.”

Carmilla sighed. Hard. “If I absolutely must, cupcake. I suppose I could stand to come by.”

She didn’t ask if she could take the cream with her.

Laura didn’t offer. 

When Carmilla left that day, her wrist covered in a bandage, the flowers were yellow and Laura’s laugh followed her out.

**Author's Note:**

> We do this together cupcakes. 
> 
> You know what a strain writing this much can be and I hope that you'll join me on this journey. Whether through simply reading along or through kudos or comments or [ tumblr flails ](http://ariabauer.tumblr.com/)
> 
> This is story 1 of 25 Days of Sweetheart (sweethearts are candy so it's on theme yes?) which I'll be writing a Carmilla story every day for 25 straight weekdays.
> 
> Stay stupendous <3 Aria


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